BERLIN (LifeSiteNews) — More than 100 employees of the Catholic Church in Germany, including priests, have come out as LGBT in a documentary aired on German public television this week.
The group of 125 church employees was the focus of a documentary entitled “As God created us.” At the same time, the group issued a statement demanding an end to the “discrimination and exclusion.”
The documentary has been characterized as “the biggest coming out in the Catholic Church” by German Christian magazine PRO.
More than a call for acceptance and end to exclusion for people with same-sex attraction, the documentary featured a large-scale rejection of the official teaching of the Catholic Church on sin and sexuality. The people interviewed demanded that profound changes be made to the Church’s perennial teachings on sexual morality.
“Entering into a non-heterosexual relationship or marriage must never be considered a breach of loyalty and, consequently, an obstacle to employment or a reason for dismissal,” they said.
The journalists behind the documentary made interview requests to all 27 German dioceses, but only one bishop was willing to comment: Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen.
Dieser claimed that the Church needs to change its biblical position and laws regarding the question of homosexuality. He explained that his own view has changed over the years. Though he used to see homosexuality as a disorder, today he is convinced that “the concept of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is more diverse than just: ‘man was created just for the woman, and the woman for the man.’”
The bishop also offered an apology to LGBT people within the Catholic Church in Germany.
“I apologize on behalf of the Church for people who have been hurt in their pastoral encounters with the Church,” he said.
Despite this latest call by Dieser and many within the German church and elsewhere to change the Church’s doctrine on homosexuality, the latter has remained constant and clear to this day.
Though the Church teaches that same-sex attraction itself is not a sin, homosexual acts are considered “sinful”, “intrinsically disordered,” and “contrary to natural law,” as explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
But while homosexual acts are considered sinful, the Catechism invite Catholics to treat people with same sex-attraction with compassion.
“This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial,” says the Catechism, adding that “men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies … must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
The Catechism also invites Catholics with same-sex attraction to unite themselves with Christ in their trial: “These persons are called to fulfil God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”
Despite rumors that Pope Francis wishes to change the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, so far, no official acts of the magisterium have given any indication of this.
In fact, a March 15 declaration by the Vatican last year reaffirmed that homosexual acts are a sin and that the Church cannot “bless” homosexual relationships.
In the U.S., a well-known promoter of the LGBT agenda within the Church is Jesuit Fr. James Martin.
Though Martin’s support for homosexual unions has earned him criticism and condemnations from prominent members of the clergy including Cardinal Raymond Burke, he has nonetheless been supported by Pope Francis. The pontiff sent a letter to Martin, encouraging him in his so-called ministry to LGBT-identifying Catholics.